Broken Sword nominated for the Guinness World Record

The Broken Sword series turns 20 this year, and it’s getting a (very specific) Guinness World Record to celebrate.

The adventure game series, created by Charles Cecil and published by Revolution Software, first appeared on PC and the original PlayStation in 1996, redefining the point and click genre. It’s gone on to spawn four more games in the years since, attracting a dedicated fanbase along the way. Tapping historical conspiracies and mythology for inspiration—think The Da Vinci Code, but arguably more believable—each entry is centred on the globetrotting adventures of French journalist Nicole ‘Nico’ Collard and American tourist (turned lawyer, turned bailsman) George Stobbart.

And it’s the continued focus on these characters as their lives intersect across decades that has earned the series its new—and rather specific—Guinness World Record; Broken Sword now has the record for “Longest running graphic adventure protagonist”.

The achievement will be recognised in print in the 2017 edition of the Guinness World Records Gamer’s Edition, set for publication in August.

There’s already a wave of protests coming from King’s Quest and Tex Murphy fans. Personally I’m torn between my love for George and Niko and the call for justice. While I don’t consider the new Graham to be related to the original King Graham in any way, Murphy is, indeed, the closest contender to my knowledge, brought to life by the same team and the very same Chris Jones. The weirdest part is that he was considered, but “due to the 16-year gap between the 5th & 6th games it was deemed a revival, not a continual series”.

Oh well, it’s still great news. I wish they’d celebrate more adventure games in such a way.

Yeah thats just dumb. According to this criteria if a character was in one game in 1980 and then a 2nd game in 2016 that would make them “longest running” (unless they arbitrarily decide its a revival).. in addition to being wrong its not a worthwhile title. Appearing in the most games would be a worthy title.

I think the long pause made after Angel of Death (9 years) might make this choice arguable, and since Broken Sword series was released and lived between 1997-2005 and then was restructured at 2014, makes this title “Longest running graphic adventure protagonist” for the Broken Sword protagonists, more on the ‘rabbit’ side than the ‘turtle’.

How about AFGNCAAP? Someone should let Guinness know that AFGNCAAP has appeared in many adventure games (graphical and otherwise) from the dawn of the genre in 1976 through to the latest and greatest Myst clone.

bottomline i guess it’s time we turn our backs against those mainstream opinions of the genre and adventure games, they either misleading or facial, they never look into the core but more into headlines; in the sake of the majority of gamers, and not the specialty of the matter.

New Graham might not count, but Old Graham was in The Silver Lining pretty recently - I guess that counts as a ‘revival’ too, though. In any case it doesn’t really matter - it’s a gimmick, no more. A nice bit of publicity for a well-loved series.

Hmm. I wonder who would win if we allowed any number of revivals/reboots - the only character I can think of offhand who starred in older text adventures as well as more recent point&click; games is Sherlock Holmes, but there may be others!

If we count freeware games, guess the Zak McKracken sequels also count. The latest one came out in 2015 I think. And by 2017 there might be more sequels (or “revivals”). Either way, there won’t be any consensus on this matter. The Guinness guys are probably just Revolution fans anyway

It kinda depends on your precise definition of ‘graphic adventure’, but the Japanese Jinguji Saburo / Jake Hunter series celebrated its 25th anniversary back in 2012 already (with a horrible 3DS game, but that’s a different matter). And that series had a new release almost every other year, save for six year break when it skipped the 16 bit console era.

That 25th anniversary game was really horrible though. In fact, there have been no new releases ever since…. =_=

“Rationality, that was it. No esoteric mumbo jumbo could fool that fellow. Lord, no! His two feet were planted solidly on God’s good earth” - Ellery Queen, The Lamp of God

For a genre that’s continually reported as ‘dead’ I think it’s great that any Adventure Game is going to make it into The Guinness World of Records albeit the argument about whether the Broken Sword series is the most accurate & appropriate one to be included - Rejoice anyway!!!!!

For a genre that’s continually reported as ‘dead’ I think it’s great that any Adventure Game is going to make it into The Guinness World of Records albeit the argument about whether the Broken Sword series is the most accurate & appropriate one to be included - Rejoice anyway!!!!!

Hi chrissie,
i guess thats the same as suggesting how small we are, so i have to object.